PART ONE

E-HEALTH OVERVIEW

If there were one phrase that could be used to describe the current status of e-health care system evolution, it would be e-health paradigm shift. Hospitals have been downsizing, reducing staff and closing hospital beds. Fiscal economics is playing a key role as governments scrutinize funding for health care services and delivery. New forms of alliances among health providers have also emerged, and new modalities of health service delivery have proliferated. The Internet has played an important role in many of these changes. Patients are becoming empowered e-consumers, demanding greater responsibility and accountability from their health care professionals. Health providers are challenged to go on-line. Even attitudes and views of health are changing, recognizing the value of e-health business alternatives and possibilities in terms of healing modalities, e-medicine, e-preventive care, e-health promotion, e-home care, and e-holistic medicine. Thus the evolving e-health care system is a dynamic entity that is being continually shaped by economic, political, technological, and social forces. In this book, the topic of e-health is not seen to exist in a vacuum but framed within this dynamic e-health paradigm shift. This part of the book unfolds the story line of the e-health paradigm shift as an outcome of changing e-consumer demands and increasing third-party payer expectations for more available, accessible, affordable, and accountable health care.